"Couldn't we all use the company/ When days don't last..."
"Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,
for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things."
-Psalm 107:4-9
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,
for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things."
-Psalm 107:4-9
There comes a time in a man's life when he cannot find direction and growth seems to elude him. No matter how far he walks or how long he runs, he cannot distinguish were he is from where he was. No progress can be made when his world is all shifting sands and shadows. It is a place of weary limbs and dry souls, where questions ring out into the hot, stale air and hang there without a breeze to bring the answers. Everything about it is dry, save for a scent in the air. It is the scent of water, the scent of hope, the scent of Oasis. It is the promise of answers. It is the promise of life. It is everywhere and it is nowhere, ever-present but never more than a reminder of what is missing. It cannot be found by effort and no amount of searching will uncover the path to its source. The desert is the path. The desert is a forge. Identity is never found, it is given and it is made. Sometimes it is only beneath the weight of his own emptiness that who a man thinks he is can be broken and who he really is can be formed. The old, the comfortable must be replaced for a time with pain. Everything is torn away by the pain and the thirst until only two remain in the desert: Truth and the broken man. It is only then when he stops seeking his own way and sits at the feet of Truth in the middle of the desert night that his path is made clear. It is only then when he learns to surrender his questions that answers will come. It is only then that he is defined. It is only then that he becomes who he is.
The desert is a forge.
It is the Desert of Breaking.
It is the Desert of Defining.
It is the Desert of surrender and out of it will walk a man.
posted by Benzoid the Destroyer at 1:01 AM
18 Comments:
you write beautiful words. please don't ever stop.
for you, a verse:
"if a tree is cut down, there is hope that it will sprout again and grow new branches. though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays, at the scent of water it may bud and sprout again like a new seedling."
-job 14:7-9 (nlt)
and a lyric:
"groaning and growing
amidst the desert days
the windy winter wilderness
will blow the self away..."
-michael card
i don't have that song (i should), but i used to sing it with another red-headed ben, long ago and far away.
hehe... yessssssssssssss.
:)
I liked reading that... and did you really post it on the eighth, cause I thought I had checked this more recently than that and hadn't seen it...
No, I didn't post it on the eighth. I put the verse down on the eighth though, so that must be why it shows that as the date. It's kind of funny actually. I wrote the body of the post and was wondering what verse to stick with it when I opened up the draft for this post, intent on using it, and discovered that verse already here and you can see how well it fits. Crazy, ain't it?
*nods to ben*
go on.
you've got a cheering section.
:)
went back and read the scripture again. "a city where they could settle" - mmmm, i think i want one of those. oh, and yes, we could all use the company... at times, when i needed it, you were there. and i look back and smile a big warm smile. a family smile.
Amen. Out WILL walk a MAN. Definately.
On your side.
?
Oh, well. I thought that was already a well established fact.
hyphenate, dear. "well-established." and you're not a disgrace. there are other people who post every bit as rarely as you.
*pesterpester* i like oatmeal.
*pester* i need to remember to replenish arielle's supply of banana chips.
*pesterpester* what did you do with yourself tonight? my elbow hurts...
Ben!!!
hi
you havn't posted in a really really really long time. Even I have been posting a little more oft than you, mr. intellectual.
ooh! do you know what we could all use, besides the company? another ben post!!! (:
you signed off one minute before i came back. just felt like tellin' you. and didn't feel like emailing. (: goodnight!
months of deprivation. months!
*hugs* we won! ...just barely (argh!) but we won!
Inquisitive? That's...an interesting way to describe a blog, especially one like mine. q;
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